A group which helps young people in Tavistock who need extra support is celebrating 20 years of success.

Tavistock Youth Café is a youth work charity supporting young people in Tavistock and surrounding areas. It started from a humble hut and has expanded rapidly to meet demand into bigger premises and reaching many more youngsters sometimes struggling with life, backed by community support.

A celebratory party was staged at the cafe (on Wednesday last week) including a young guitarist, food, speeches and ceremonial cake cutting by cafe chair Vicki Lloyd-Walsh and Tavistock Town Mayor Cllr Steve Hipsey. The gathering included supporters, staff, volunteers and community backers.

Vicki said: “I am very proud of everyone who has supported, worked for and believed in Tavistock Youth Cafe and the young people we represent over the last 20 years. Our twentieth anniversary is a significant milestone and as a charity working with young people we have experienced multiple challenges with cuts to funding.

“Working together with the community has given us many memorable projects and encouragement to push forward with ideas and enthusiasm to do more.

“Being able to work alongside such a dedicated team of youth workers, volunteers and trustees is a privilege. It has been a fantastic journey and we are all looking forward to continuing this well established youth charity onto the future.”

The cafe offers open access sessions provide a safe meeting space to meet each other and youth workers, a range of activities and information workshops raising knowledge and awareness around issues identified by young people.

Alan Wroath, youth cafe chair of trustees, said: “This is a wonderful celebration of 20 years of the Tavistock Youth Café and ten years since we moved into this second building and became a charity.

So many people have contributed to the success of the youth Café over those years. We wanted to say thank you to all of you and in some cases to the organisations that you represent. For the past 18 years the youth cafe has been led by the inspirational Vicky Lloyd Walsh.

“It is thanks to the vision of those involved that the youth cafe was created and has made a difference to the lives of so many young people in Tavistock since.”

“Local is best for many things! It means a lot to us that we receive a lot of funding from local organisations. We were honoured to have been the mayors charity for example last year so again I want to say thank you to all of you who have supported us financially, even by eating cake at fundraising events.”

He thanked a founder Anne Johnson who said she and the local youth council, researched best practice, secured funding and set up a sub group of young people.

Former members praised the cafe. One said he would not have passed his GCSEs and was likely to be expelled from school. However, the cafe gave him the confidence to stay at school, pass his exams and get a pub job: “So, from where I was, my life changed very much, thanks to the youth cafe.”